The Painting
by Alyxzia
Summary: After Prue's death something special helps Phoebe move on.


The Painting.  
  
It had been three weeks since Prue's funeral. The loss still hadn't struck home in Phoebe yet. Piper was at the club trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She was lucky. She still had Leo. He wasn't going anywhere.  
  
Not like Phoebe. Everything was gone now. Her oldest, most caring yet dominating sister she could ever have. The love of her life—her boyfriend who had been so sweet to her for so many months. It had been perfect. She'd thought things would never change. But they did in such a short space of time.  
  
It was dark and the streetlight outside the window cast eerie shadows across the room as Phoebe slowly pushed open the door she had not open for so many years. Never open this door, she had learned at a young age. It was always forbidden, until now that is. Prue's room had always been off limits to all except Prue herself.  
  
Cautiously Phoebe stepped into the room being enveloped in the smell of her oldest sister. That cool musky aroma lingered in her senses and triggered her memory. *** The bottle of musk spray on the bench that she had been told not to touch, but she had touched and the bottle had broke. Prue had been upset until Phoebe showed her love and bought a new bottle. That night under her pillow in bed, Phoebe had found some money and a note thanking her for replacing the bottle and for that she got her money back***  
  
With a sob and a solitary tear rolling down her cheek, Phoebe came back to her senses and ventured further into the room.  
  
Her hand trembled as she felt for the light switch she knew was on the wall. A shiver tingled its way up her arm has her fingertips connected with the switch. In a moment the room was full of light. As Phoebe looked around she noticed so many things about her sister she had never known before. The desk was loaded with framed photos. One caught her eye. It was of her and Prue. ***She's have been no more than about 6 and Prue would have been about 10 or 11. Prue was giving her a piggyback ride, both were grinning from ear-to-ear. They had so much fun that day. The sun was shining and the grass was so green it looked like it had been painted onto the ground. It was a day to remember and she would never forget it***  
  
Her gaze rested on an original piece of artwork leaning against the wall on top of a dresser. It was an oil painting of their mother. Phoebe never knew that Prue had this beautiful painting. It didn't look very old either. Phoebe walked up to the dresser and closely looked at it. In the bottom corner a signature was scrawled. Squinting she struggled to make out the words. When she did her heart skipped a beat. It was signed Prue Halliwell. This lovely painting was painted by her sister. How could she not have known?  
  
Resting her hand on the dresser she felt paper under her touch. Looking down she saw her name written on a piece of paper. She picked it up and opened it carefully, revealing a letter.  
  
Dear Phoebe,  
  
I know that you will be the first to enter my room and have a look around. I mean, how could you resist the temptation of entering your older sister's room without her there to yell at you? That was supposed to be a joke. Not very funny, I know, but I never was known for my great humor.  
  
I've known that I'm going to die for about a month now. I can't tell you because I don't know how. I wish I could talk to you the way you and Piper talk together but I've left the river uncrossed for so many years I don't think I'm strong enough to build that bridge, so I decided to write this letter to you.  
  
I guess by now you would have found the painting of Mum. I painted it for you so that you could always know how much she loved us all and how wonderful her smile was. I wanted the smile to last forever so that you could know that you smile just like that and whenever I see you smile I see Mum. The resemblance is so clear; it's like her spirit transferred from her into you. The sparkle you get in your eyes when you're happy is identical too. I may be told by everyone that I look the most like Mum but I know that it is you who is the real direct descendant. I may be by blood, but you are in life, in everything about your life and personality, heart and soul, and it kills me that I find that all these years I have been so jealous of you and everything you have that I so want.  
  
I want you to know that I've always loved you and I'm so sorry that I pushed you away. But I feel that the time you spent in New York really did you so much good. I believe that you really learned how to read the human emotions and you should never let that talent go. Whether you think I'm right or not is irrelevant because this is only what I think you learned.  
  
I guess all I want to really say in the end is that even though it's been very rare that I've told you this to your face: but I love you so much and I always will. Even when I'm here on Earth no longer, never forget that my love will be with you.  
  
I almost can't believe that my little Phoebe who I used to play snakes and ladders with, bandage scraped knees and kiss everything better is really grown up now and living her own life. A life that I sometimes wish I had have lived myself.  
  
I often wonder if things would have been different if I'd actually gone to New York for University. Would we have been friends? Or would things have been worse? I know that the past can't be changed but it doesn't stop me from wondering if things could have been all good and we could have been like a normal family with normal everyday things happening to us. I don't think I would have liked that either though.  
  
As my life has now come to an end don't let yours end to. You have too much going for you to let it all slip away. I'd really have liked to have been there to see you finish Uni and become a really good youth worker or something like that. You'd be so good helping people to help others. Just like in that movie 'Pay It Forward' where the boy says if you help three people and then they help three other people, then those nine people help three other people of their own…. I could see you as the initiator of something like that.  
  
Have fun in your life and never forget that at the end of the tunnel there is always a light, just beware that you do not go the wrong way and meet a train. Remember that joke you told me in high school? See I do remember the important little things in life.  
  
I love you Phoebe,  
  
Luv your big sis  
  
Prue  
  
~*~  
  
With the tears streaming down her cheeks Phoebe placed the letter back down onto the hard wood. Sinking down onto the bed she let herself really cry for the first time since Prue's death.  
  
All the emotions in the letter entered her body and above all she could feel the love of her oldest sister. Prue may be gone from the human world but she would always be there in her memories and memories could sometimes last forever. A little insignificant thing could trigger a memory and almost everything in the house would remind her in some way of Prue so in that sense she wasn't really dead.  
  
With a new feeling of determination, Phoebe picked up the photo off the desk. Looking at the photo, at Prue's smiling face, she knew she had to move forward and wherever that path would lead her she would always have someone to turn to, and above all she would be always loved. The painting would remind her of that any time she looked at it. Prue's love shone from her mother's smile and the love it would have taken to paint such a picture to go with such a letter.  
  
The End. 


End file.
